On March 10, Looking for Steel Industry Internet Group (hereinafter: Looking for Steel Network) disclosed prospectus documents on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and plans to go public through a merger and acquisition transaction with a special purpose acquisition company.
On August 31, 2023, Looking for Steel Network announced the signing of a merger agreement with Aquila to be listed in Hong Kong under the DE-SPAC model, with a valuation of about HK$10 billion. If the deal is successfully completed, Steel Net is expected to be the first company to be listed in Hong Kong under the de-SPAC model.
The history of finding steel nets can be traced back to March 2012, when co-founders Wang Dong, Wang Changhui, and Rao Huigang founded Shanghai Gangfu (the predecessor of Find Steel Mesh) to develop online steel trading services in China.
Since its establishment, Looking for Steel Network has collected six rounds of pre-listing investment, with a cumulative financing of about RMB 2.5 billion. Investors include Zhenge Fund, Xianfeng K2VC, Jingwei Venture Capital, Sequoia China, and Shougang Fund.
Following the completion of the merger and acquisition transaction of the special purpose acquisition company, Wang Dong, Wang Changhui, and Rao Huigang will jointly own and control 36,108,114 Class A shares and 191,035,862 shares of the successor company's Class B shares through their respective intermediaries. Assuming that the presumption is implemented, their total shares will be about 19.1% of the shares of the issued successor company, and they will control about 66.9% of the successor company's voting rights, which can be exercised on the resolution at the shareholders' meeting.
In terms of performance, from 2021 to 2023, steel mesh revenue was 1,353 million yuan, 905 million yuan, and 1,168 million yuan respectively; losses during the year were 274 million yuan, 366 million yuan, and 469 million yuan respectively; adjusted EBITDA was -180 million yuan, -207 million yuan, and 4.57 million yuan, respectively.
According to Insight Consulting's data, according to the 2022 online steel trading tonnage, Find Steel Net is the world's largest digital platform for tripartite steel trading. According to Insight Consulting data, by connecting major players in the steel trading industry to its digital platform, Find Steel Network is the first in China to provide one-stop B2B integrated services covering the entire value chain of steel trading, including online steel trading, logistics, warehousing and processing, financing solutions, SaaS products, and big data analysis.